Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) announced its investment of $30 million in Fund III managed by IMPACT46, a prominent asset management and advisory firm, which was among the first to receive authorization from the Capital Market Authority (CMA). Fund III will invest in Saudi growth-stage companies and up to pre-IPO stage businesses, with an allocation to seed-stage startups and promising startups from the broader Middle East region.
The subscription agreement was signed by Dr. Nabeel Koshak, CEO and Board Member at SVC, and Abdulaziz Alomran, Founder and CEO of IMPACT46. The signing ceremony was also attended by Nora Alsarhan, Chief Investment Officer, and Haifa Bahaian, Chief Legal Officer at SVC, as well as Basmah Alsinaidi, Managing Partner and Head of Asset Management at IMPACT46.
Dr. Koshak commented: “The investment in IMPACT46’s Fund III is part of SVC’s Investment in Funds Program to support the development of the venture capital (VC) ecosystem in Saudi Arabia for all sectors and stages. This investment also comes to foster the growth witnessed recently by the VC sector in Saudi Arabia, which made it at the forefront of the VC scene in MENA during the first half of 2023, in terms of the amount of VC funding.”
Last July, reports revealed that Saudi Arabia was the most funded country in the MENA region in terms of the amount of Venture Capital funding in H1 2023, which witnessed a total VC deployment of $446M (SAR 1.67 billion).
“We are delighted that SVC and IMPACT46 are once again joining forces, this time with our Fund III, which aims to support the growth of the tech startup ecosystem in Saudi Arabia. This partnership demonstrates our commitment to achieving our shared vision for driving a sustainable economic impact,” stated Mr. Abdulaziz Alomran, Founder and CEO of IMPACT46. “This investment not only signifies the growing maturity of the VC activity in Saudi Arabia but also highlights the Kingdom’s potential to emerge as a frontrunner in this sector.”
SVC is a government investment company established in 2018 and is a subsidiary of the SME Bank, one of the developmental banks affiliated with the National Development Fund. SVC aims to stimulate and sustain financing for startups and SMEs from pre-Seed to pre-IPO by investing $2 billion through investment in funds and co-investment in startups. SVC invested in 43 funds that have invested in 700+ companies.